How the west was
by ChristinaLarsson
Summary: Summary inside. Certain chapters fixed, thanks Lorendiac. Important note about the story on my bio, please read.
1. A simple vacation

**A/N: What if there was one other woman that Sherlock Holmes could fall for besides Irene Adler? A woman who broke all traditions and had a fire that could not be tamed; a woman who was frowned upon in proper society, yet she had never given herself to anyone because any man who presented himself as a hopeful wanted to change and mould her into the 'perfect woman'.**

**Sherlock Holmes found her perfect as she was, but he had to travel to the States for what was to be a simple vacation to find her.**

**Most of this story will be written as by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Watson's point of view) but some parts will be written as omniscient. When the point of view changes, I'll try to do it in separate chapters, but if it's in the same chapter there will be a line separating the two sections. I don't know at this point if it will become a happily ever after or if the end shall be spent in partings.**

While my dear friend Sherlock Holmes never applied the title of The Woman to anyone but Irene Adler, there was one other woman who had touched his heart. Even he couldn't deny his infatuation; though I was the only one he outright said it to.

My family and I had gone on a nice little holiday to the western United States of America, and my wife was the one who had the idea of inviting Holmes along.

"He never gets out of that little flat of his except for cases. Wouldn't you agree that he should get a little air? I hear the open spaces of the west can be wonderful for one's health."

"Now, my dear, who is the doctor here?" I replied jokingly.

Still, I considered it might be a way to help keep him from the needle. If he was out most of the time (and I highly suspected he would be, what with the twins running around the house), then perhaps he would ease up on his addiction (which he still claims is non-existent).

When I first proposed that he accompany us, he replied 'hmm' and appeared to go deep into thought. It is near impossible to read anything from Holmes' expression, but I could imagine him weighing the pros and cons, and was it really worth it anyway then finally opened his eyes and rose from his chair.

"Very well, Watson. I shall accompany you and the rest to America. Perhaps a bit of relaxation would be a good idea."

I told him when to meet me at the train station which would bring us to the waterfront and onto the ship which would take us to America. He rushed off to tell Mrs. Hudson that he would be away for a while and that as usual she was to stay away from his chemistry set and if Inspector Lestrade were to give her any trouble she was quite within her right to show him the door and yes, of course he would pay the rent upon return, what did she take him for?

My wife was quite delighted to hear Holmes was coming with us. She often regards him as a bit of a child who needs a good parenting every now and then, occasionally annoying Holmes, of course, but he puts up with it rather nicely, while still telling her when she is fussing too much.

The trip on the train, Holmes slept. The trip on the steam ship, he had a book about the western United States. Both trips were quite uneventful, except when Holmes awoke on the train and realised the twins had chosen to curl up on either side of him for their naps while he slept.

After arriving in Freeport, Texas by ship, we took another train to Pasadena and then a buggy to the hotel where we were to stay. When we had unpacked, Holmes and I set out to walk around a bit while my wife bathed the twins. There was a crowd gathering near the end of the street as Holmes and I walked up.

A bull had gotten free from a nearby fencing and was bucking around at anyone who dared get too close.

A couple of men approached with ropes, but one got kicked in the ribs and the other was lucky to get up after he was thrown by the bull's horns.

"Someone get on a horse and lasso that beast!"

As though in reply, we heard the neigh of a horse and a young fellow dressed in what seemed to be a fashion here of strange, blue pants, a white collar button-shirt, high boots and a wide-brim hat came riding, seemingly guiding his black horse by his legs alone as he was using both arms to twirl a 'lasso'. The crowd parted to let the young man through as he charged, threw the rope around the bull's neck, and then leapt from his horse and onto the bull.

"Watson!" Holmes exclaimed. "It's a woman!"

I looked better and saw indeed that the young person had long, brown hair braided into pigtails and her breasts were bouncing with the buck of the bull. Holmes seemed to enjoy watching her try to calm the bull. In fact, he was near laughing.

"Now, settle down! You silly ol' thing!" she shouted.

Some of the men seemed to be a little braver as the well-being of the lady was put into question by her actions, but they were still being too slow. They only managed to touch the bull after she had weighed down on the neck and jumped down, pulling the bull onto it's side; this was when the men approached with a bunch of ropes to tie the thing down.

The young lady, out of breath but smiling began to walk away to find her horse when an elderly woman approached and began chiding her.

"Girls have no business doing such barbarous actions!"

The girl laughed and whipped off her hat, bowing to the crowd.

"Thank you! Thank you very much!"

Several people laughed, but a larger number still seemed scandalized at this.

The girl replaced her hat, twirled around on one foot, and walked calmly past me. This was when I realised that Holmes was no longer beside me. I turned about and saw him holding the girl's horse by the reins.

"That was very brave of you. Miss?"

"Lucy Norris, sir." She tipped her hat to him. "My daddy 'n me are the richest folks 'round here, but that makes everyone think I oughta be wearin' frilly dresses an' corsets and ridin' side-saddle. I disappoint 'em, see?"

Holmes grinned and had a look in his eye which I hadn't noticed before.

"Your horse is well-trained if it didn't run off when you jumped."

"Bandit here is a wild mare my daddy found wantin' shelter in a storm. He said no one would be able to train her an' he'd probably shoot her if no rodeo bought her, but I managed to get her to trust me enough to go near her, and eventually she let me on her. That was when I was twelve and when dad caught me riding her once he was trying to yell at me but he was laughin' so hard he had tears running down his cheeks."

Holmes laughed and handed her the reins.

"You an English gent, right?"

"Sherlock Holmes, your servant miss." they shook hands and Holmes used his free hand to point. "And the man behind you eavesdropping is my friend and colleague Dr. John Watson."

I started and felt flustered and having been accused of eaves-dropping but walked up as miss Norris turned and shook my hand. Hers was a near-crushing grip I wouldn't have expected from a young lady, but she seemed to do nothing but shock and stun since we arrived.

"Where you folks stayin'? I'm sure my daddy'd love to have y'all over for supper. His grandparents were from England."

"If he doesn't mind, we'll be five guests." I said. "My wife and children are here, as well, at the hotel."

"No problem! I'll go ask him and send word soon as possible."

And with that she was on her horse in one swift, easy motion.

"So long, gents!"

She nudged her horse's sides with her heels, which were spur free, and took off past the town.

Word was received a little past lunch time that a buggy would be sent at five o'clock and my wife was quite pleased to hear that we'd been invited to the home of high-society.

"Thank goodness I've packed suits for the twins! I was worried that it might be over-packing, but here's proof of the contrary."

She began fussing over their appearances as Holmes and I took turns dressing in the adjacent room.

The buggy, driven by what would seem to be a servant of the Norris' arrived at five o'clock on schedule to pick us up. The sight seemed to cause a bit of stir among the people watching as we got on and were driven about twenty minutes out of the town and up to what seemed to be a horse ranch, but the house was huge and majestic.

There were seven sets of windows on either side of the door and on all four floors.

We were dropped off at the gate and walked down a brick path to the door. I knocked and was immediately greeted by another servant who led us to the parlour, which was grand and sparkling. It was decorated by Victorian furniture and the theme was black and deep colours of red, purple and blue.

A middle-aged man with a small moustache rose and greeted us.

"Friends! I have been eagerly anticipating your arrival since my daughter told me of your arrival in town. Quincey Norris, gentlemen." He shook mine and Holmes' hands in turn, and I discovered where Lucy had inherited her grip; then he turned to Mrs. Watson.

"And milady, welcome."

He kissed her hand and she curtsied as well she could holding one of the twins on her hip.

"And little tenderfoots. Stay here for a year an' they'll be buckaroos come springtime."

He ruffled the hair on both twins and laughed, then gestured to the sofas.

"Please, sit down. Sorry if my Lucy is late; she doesn't have much occasion for dresses and finds them complicated for no reason."

This was followed by another belly laugh. Holmes brought up how we had come acquainted with miss Norris.

"Yes, your daughter displayed an immensely courageous act today, though I'm afraid many people gathered didn't think so."

"Yes, she can be quite a little spitfire. Too bad we still live in a society where girls like her aren't seen right. Ah! Here's Lucy!"

Mr. Norris rose, as did we, and saw Miss Norris enter the parlour wearing a flowing white dress and her hair in a bun with several curls flowing from it.

Holmes looked absolutely smitten, though he never would have admitted to it, and walked up to kiss her hand.

"Miss Lucy, you look absolutely stunning."

She curtsied, but seemed to do so jokingly.

I led my wife and the twins up to her and introduced them.

"Mrs. Watson, Jeremy and Jonathan."

"Well, hello!"

Lucy shook with Mrs. Watson and then hugged both twins.

We all sat talking for a while in the parlour when, at 6:00, dinner was announced.

Mr. Norris allowed Holmes to lead Lucy by the arm to the table and they sat side by side on the father's right from the head of the table; I began the line on the left to my wife and the twins.

Dinner was soup followed by roast beef followed by chocolate gâteau. At the end we moved once more to the parlour but Lucy first went up saying she was 'suffocating in this d------n corset', which earned a half-hearted reproach from her father pointing out that they had guests.

When Lucy returned wearing a suit and corset free, she also had a violin case in her hand.

"Ah! Excellent idea, Lucy! Give it here and we'll show our friends how we dance out here!"

Lucy handed the case to her father who checked a few strings before striking up a rapid tune. Lucy stood where we could all see her and danced to the tune, moving her feet at such a pace it was wonder she didn't trip. We all got the urge and began clapping in time, then applauded when the song stopped and Lucy bowed in gentlemanly fashion.

"Bravo, Miss Lucy!" Holmes stood and kissed her hand again.

"Thank you, Mr. Holmes." she smiled sweetly.

The two sat down on one sofa but didn't really join in the conversation of the Britain-States relationship or the government seems to be rather slow in getting things town about as much as it is in England, wouldn't you agree Mr. Watson. They did do plenty of talking to each other, however, and finally Lucy spoke up.

"Daddy, can I take Mr. Holmes out to show him some of the prize stallions?"

"You go ahead, Lucy."

I could only wonder just how much they would actually be able to see at this hour.

**A/N: What do you guys think so far? Obviously, I took the names of the characters I made up from _Dracula_.**


	2. The game is afoot

**A/N: Chapter two! At last! I had written a little bit before but then I moved to Woodstock for college and it made things so incredibly complicated... Thank you to those who already reviewed, and, I actually got the idea of Lucy (well, the name came from Dracula) from A Study in Scarlet. You know, the girl (whose name I can't think of off the top of my head) that was adopted by that guy who had no choice but to follow the mormons and all that stuff? I just made her a little more tom-boyish.**

"Ernest is a real gentle horse. My daddy used to give lessons to some of the boys in town and he'd use Ernest to start off, especially for the younger ones."

Lucy was standing on the bottom log of the gate and leaning in to pet the stallion. Sherlock seemed to be paying more attention to her than what she was saying.

"How old are you, miss Lucy?"

"No 'miss' stuff out here, 'less you prefer I call you mr. Holmes. I'm twenty-two."

"Very well, Lucy. You may call me Sherlock. Is there no young man in your life?"

"Nope. They're all too busy with the brainless types who would panic if they're missing a glove."

Sherlock nodded.

"But you don't do that?"

"I hardly ever wear gloves an' I sure don't panic. It's not cause I'm rich enough to just buy another pair, either. I just don't see why one should bother panicking. It just makes the situation worse than it is. Besides, it's a glove. Who cares if people can see your hand? Just take off the other glove and ya got a match."

Sherlock chuckled softly.

"Hmm. Just a question, what happened to your mother?"

"They don't really know. Someone said once that it was cause she was poisoned. What made it worse was she was eight months pregnant with me. Daddy always said it was a miracle I survived. I guess that's why he doesn't mind me doing un-lady-like things: it's proof that I'm strong despite what happened. He's just so happy that I lived and didn't turn out sickly."

Sherlock turned this over in his mind. Why would someone want to kill the woman, let alone while she was with child? Did someone simply want to stop her from having the child? Or did they want both of them gone?

The two eventually walked back up to the house. Lucy needed a drink and asked for some soft wine. The butler brought it forth in a small glass and Lucy chugged it immediately and handed the glass back to the butler. Sherlock chuckled at the 'un-lady-like' manner in which she drank it. She handled it as though it were cheap beer. As she continued on her way, however, Sherlock just behind her, she stopped suddenly and started coughing violently. Sherlock came behind her and helped to lay her down as the Watsons and Lucy's father ran in from the parlou.

"Lucy! Mr. Holmes, what happened?"

"I'll explain in a bit. For now, Watson, go to the kitchen and fetch a mix of water, salt and mustard powder, quickly!"

Quincey led the way as he and Watson were off in a flash. Being a doctor, Watson knew that Holmes meant that the lady needed to be made to vomit, and quickly. Mrs. Watson brought the twins back to the parlour, knowing this was not something they should see.

Sherlock helped Lucy to sit up and lean back on him, rubbing her back to help ease her breathing. She was very red in the face and tears were streaming down her eyes.

Watson returned, still stirring the mixure and handed it to Holmes, who helped Lucy to down it by keeping her leaned backward on him. As soon as the glass was empty (quite a lot of it had gotten in her and Holmes' laps, but she managed to swallow to most of it), Holmes got her to lean on all fours and pressed on her stomach.

She began retching immediately, spilling an icky, watery brown mess all over the tile floor. Holmes was quick to notice that there were small streams of red... blood.

As soon as the mess was all over, Quincey turned to Holmes.

"Alright, what happened?"

"When we came in she called for a glass of wine. Either some of your wine cellar has gone bad, or someone poisoned it before it reached Lucy."

Holmes tried to hide the crease of worry that threatened to break. He was still rubbing Lucy's back, trying to ease her breathing, which was ragged. She still had tears streaming down her face.

Mr. Norris' face drained of colour as he processed the information.

"Whoever it was before that killed her mother... he's come back."

"So it would seem." Holmes helped Lucy to sit in his lap, away from the mess.

Lucy took a few gasping breaths before speaking, her voice sounding as though she had had strep throat for a week.

"But who would want to kill me? What have I done?"

"I'm guessing it'd be more a matter of money, miss Lucy. As vile as it sounds, people do kill for money."

"But who?" mr. Norris asked, flabbergasted.

"In order to know that, we must ask this: quae prosum. Who benefits? And now, sir, miss Lucy, there can be no doubt. The game is afoot."


End file.
